The Marana Unified School District Governing Board ended their special meeting on Wednesday with no action on requiring face masks on Marana school campuses.
Board member John Lewandowski called the Sept. 28 emergency meeting on the previous day and planned to make a motion for the institution of a mask mandate. Marana school campuses have gone to mask-optional status since their previous mandate ended on Sept 29.
New data from a recently released study by the CDC, co-authored with Pima County, showed K-12 schools without mask requirements were 3.5 times more likely to experience a COVID outbreak. Data was taken from 999 public schools in Pima and Maricopa counties.
Board member Hunter Holt surprised the Board on Wednesday by making a motion to relinquish the authority to institute a mask mandate to Superintendent Dr. Dan Streeter.
“My motion is to give Dr. Streeter sole authority to implement and remove any sort of mask mandate from here on out,” Holt said.
Holt said he trusted Streeter to make the proper decision. He also said that COVID case numbers have improved in Marana. The Arizona Department of Health Services has recorded a slow decrease of overall COVID cases in Pima County since the August surge. Pima County K-12 schools are still considered to have high transmissibility, according to ADHS.
“This is really ridiculous. John called this meeting so the five of us could vote on re-imposing a mask mandate and now Hunter has come in from left field and has thrown this curveball,” said board member Tom Carlson. “Obviously, Dr. Streeter doesn’t know what to say on this.”
Streeter seemed confused by the surprise motion and recommended the Board vote no. The motion to give Streeter mandate authority failed.
Lewandowski then asked the board to extend the mask mandate. The motion was not seconded. Marana Unified School District will remain mask-optional until the board decides otherwise.
“I was very disappointed,” Lewandowski said after the meeting.
“I thought I was doing what was in the best interest of kids and staff for safety.”
Lewandowski pledged to ask Board President Dr. Maribel Lopez to revisit the subject at a future meeting but said she could choose not to include it.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2021.
“…3.5 times as likely…”
There were two groups of districts that have masks mandates in the CDC “study”. The larger had 81% of its schools not having outbreaks. By comparison, the group not having a mask mandate had 76% of its schools not having an outbreak.
An “outbreak” is not the correct metric to be tracking. They should have tracked the number of infections.
When a study looks a problem from one angle and doesn’t discuss another perspective when they almost certainly looked at that perspective too (the infection data had to be at the tip of their fingers) that study loses huge credibility. They appear to be using their scientific sophistication to lie.
They also appear to be corrupt in that they could have easily added charter public school outbreaks and infections into their studies. Why didn’t they? Inexplicable unless they found them to have lower rates of outbreaks and infections.
This Marana outcome lets us know that the court win was pyrrhic. School districts requiring masks are losing students. Unlike other states where school districts have a totalitarian grip on children, Arizona parents have choices and districts know it.
I volunteer most days of the week at a school where masks are voluntary. I wear a mask into the school every day. I wear a real mask, an N95 mask that gives total protection unlike the fake masks worn by the typical person.
The Covid-19 virus is one tenth of a millionth of an inch in size and sails right through the typical masks. N95 masks are made from a polypropylene fabric that has blown fibers with totally random alignment combined electrostatic properties that very effectively trap the virus. And, the mask has a good seal around the face so that you are breathing through the mask, not around the mask.
Less than 5% of the children and staff are wearing masks. This is a school where everyone was masked up all the time last year.
Good for Marana. A Covid pill is coming and how are we going to rescind all these draconian measures including the firing of our front line medical and law enforcement.
This is organized and plotted out insanity. What next, will they want to examine our bank accounts?